I am writing this blog in an airport in Baltimore. I'm heading to Canada to make some connections with folks in Hamilton as well as preach in my home town of Drayton. I have been anticipating this trip as it is always exciting visiting my hometown with friends and family here in Ontario. However, as I make this trip and continue to develop ministry partners, I arrive during a very difficult time for the Christian Reformed community. We have received word that the search for Tim Bosma is over...

There are parents in Moore, Oklahoma, right at this very moment, who haven't slept because their children, their darling school-age children, are still somewhere in what little is left of the school where yesterday morning, when the bell rang, they sat in their chairs, innocent as doves. What those moms and dads, kids themselves really, are going through right now is beyond imagination. They can't dig through the rubble themselves, though they would if they could. Only search-and-rescue people can.

I suppose I have simply gotten used to unfinished business. As more academic years slide past and pile up behind me, I have less a sense of closure in May than a sense of constant motion. Even this year, when two of my own children are graduating--one from high school and one from middle schoolI'm having a hard time savoring the moment. Perhaps this is why Psalm 90 has been on my mind, a psalm about the passage of time, the ephemerality of life. For God, a thousand years are like a day, and our little human lives are quick as a breath and ...

How do we hear the voice of God?   I think what most of us really want, what most of us really need, is to experience and hear God speak into our lives.  Not in a weird sort of way.  Not in a heretical manner.  But clearly and lovingly. How do we do hear God's still small voice?  First and foremost, we need to saturate our life in the Word of God and prayer.  The Word of God is His revealed will for us.  It contains His perfect guidance on life and practice in...

Despite my best intentions, I’m not always so good at dealing with anger. I’m not alone with this problem, which means that opportunities to seek and grant forgiveness abound. The retreat last month reminded Monica and me how it’s a privilege for Christians to seek and grant forgiveness. It’s a privilege because our forgiving attitude helps us better experience the reality of God’s forgiveness. To quote the apostle Paul: “Be kind and compassionate..."

Look, I shouldn't have gone.  Back home, it was grading season, and I bit off more than I could chew by teaching two courses during my first year of retirement.  I was busy beyond busy.  I'd overbooked myself for the last month, running off to speak about this or that, hither and yon--sometimes with my wife, sometimes not--and the last thing I should have done was fly up to Ontario for a three-day retreat for preachers and spouses. I'm not even a preacher...

A year ago now, our new, old house was a mess because we were leaving that one after 27 years, an old place rich with golden oak that made it look, somehow, like the kind of home that really should belong to a preacher. It was a great place, the house our kids grew up in and finally left; but oddly enough my wife and I shed no tears leaving it, even though every square inch of it probably still holds ghosts that linger of our lives there. I hope they bother no one...

Top 10 signs your relationship with God is on track. (As with any journey, sometimes you have to backtrack when you realize you’ve made a wrong turn.  These characteristics are what you should expect to see in general. This list is not exhaustive.) 1. Your life is characterized by less and less anxiety and more and more peace...

We arrived safely and without incident in Nicaragua on Friday. I spent a chunk of the weekend exploring my new neighborhood - just outside of Managua off the Old South Highway near Kilometer ten - on my bicycle. (Yes, I decided to take it along.) Needless to say, the scenery was a bit different then I am accustomed to seeing while riding around Denver. Small homes - most no more than a few hundred square feet and constructed out of tin panels - lined they dusty and rutted dirt roads.

A few months ago a friend and colleague of mine asked me to help him with a prayer for a new hymnal he was editing. In this hymnal, titled "Lift Up Your Hearts," he wanted to include a prayer reflecting the theme of immigration as well as indigenous peoples. He was also hoping that this prayer would help those who prayed it to feel more fully a part of the all "from every nation, tribe, people and language" who are gathered around the throne of the lamb...

Someone had to come out and say it eventually, and Lillian Daniel was the brave one. Her blog post “Spiritual But Not Religious: Please Stop Boring Me” raised a ruckus in September of 2011 when it appeared in the Huffington Post. The short essay describes her encounter with a man on a plane who, learning that she was a pastor, felt compelled to explain to her how spiritual he is, and how he does it all without benefit of clergy, or church, or any of that organized religion jazz...

Yesterday, as a part of our regular church service we had the pleasure commissioning our University graduates into their lives beyond school.  We read a short litany, Pastor Kelly blessed them and members of the congregation came up to lay hands on the students as we prayed over them. I was inspired to do this after reading several things that Ken Baker had to say in the book we studied at the end of the semester, What Do I Do With My Life?...

We see God on the move through the Bible. This comes into clearest focus in Jesus of Nazareth. John tells us his gospel in the opening of his gospel tells us, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Message paraphrase puts it in vivid terms, “The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.” John uses Word to communicate the radical reality that the Word is Jesus and the Word came to earth and showed us who God is. It is profound. The eternal God, beyond space and time is embodied in a local setting...

So, I'm working on a message about Sabbath under the theme of "Release." We often see "Sabbath" and think "time off." But when we read the version of the 10 commandments found in Deuteronomy 5:1-21 we encounter another "take" on the theme. There it commands Sabbath as a time to celebrate being set free from burdens and chains that hold us back and drag us down. And not just celebrate - but, by extension, working with whatever power and influence we have to ensure that others, too, can be freed ...

In 2011, many famous figures in the UK celebrated the King James Version of the Bible, including leaders like Prince Charles and David Cameron. But leaders celebrating the Bible is not a sight we often see. It makes it even more exciting to hear this news from a New Testament celebration earlier this month: "Earlier this month the Prime Minister of Chad, Mr Joseph Djimrangar Dadnadji, broke away from meetings with international leaders to attend the dedication of the Chadian Arabic New Testament at a local church in N’Djamena, accompanied by most of his cabinet..."

Memorial services these days are often called celebrations: a celebration of the life of. . . .  You fill in the name. We are not going to think sad thoughts--so go the invitations. We are going to sing only glad songs, tell only happy stories, and celebrate, never mourn, the life of our friend and loved one. There will be nothing somber or depressing. It's all so strenuous and so wrong. What's so bad about being sad?... 

Last month, a young scientist from our congregation had a paper published in Nature Neuroscience. My first thought on hearing the good news was, “I want to preach a sermon on what she’s discovered. I want to unpack God’s biological truth as it’s revealed in the amazing way that our neurons physiologically adapt to stress.” In my mind, this discovery is a new revelation that has just been unveiled. An authoritative word from God. He has graciously built a neurobiological capacity into our brains that helps us deal with stress. I don’t know how it all works yet, but I’m convinced...

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” That King David had real enemies is, I suppose, both a curse and a blessing. The curse was that his scalp was frequently in danger, from enemies both without—warring tribes—and within—his predecessor as King, as well as his own son. There were human beings who, quite literally, wanted him dead. I can’t really say the same is true of me...

We creation care advocates, we’re pretty sure of ourselves, aren’t we? Let’s face it. We’ve listened to the National Academy of Sciences. We’ve read the research on global changes. We know all the “parts-per-million” data. We’ve seen the melting glaciers, and the shrinking ice cover. We know about sea levels, ocean acidification, and runaway species extinctions. But let’s face it: most people out there aren’t nearly as alarmed as we’re pretty sure they ought to be. After all, some say, scientists have been wrong before, no?...

I am struck by how many verses about floods and storms are contained in scripture.  Whether natural or metaphorical, it is clear that few things expose our feeble power, our incredible fantasies of control more than raging water, whatever form it takes. The magnificent short psalm, Psalm 93, is full of overwhelming deluges...

I’m traveling with new friends from Canada, the U.S. and Uganda who share a deep commitment to caring for God’s creation. Some of us focus our efforts on the ravages of human-induced climate change. But our Kenyan friends are dealing with the facts on the ground, serving the victims of drought, flooding and soil degradation. They’re not fighting for a cause; they’re fighting for people. The stories they tell all have a common theme: The systems people once relied upon to sustain their communities are increasingly unreliable. Droughts are increasing in frequency; so are floods...

David takes comfort in the Lord’s vigilance.  That’s the idea at the heart of this verse.  He sleeps better, knowing the Shepherd’s weapons are poised so nothing will disturb the flock.

My friend John Van Sloten preaches and writes about vocation regularly. He just posted another piece at ThinkChristian. His post triggered a question I often ponder: why did God bother to make this enormous cosmos? Anyone with a bit of Reformed catechism can easily answer “for His glory” but that of course just begins the conversation. What about the manifest abundance of the cosmos is glorious?...

I just spent the morning listening to interviews with and reading the words of four stylists (they’re helping me with Sunday’s sermon on God’s truth in their jobs). As I teased out their vocational passions, they kept saying things that made me think of God: “I want every hair to do what I’m telling it to until I see them again…” (“Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered…” Jesus in MT 10:30)...